UPDATE #2: According to David Parry, the former supervisor of Big Ten football officials and the national coordinator of College Football Officiating, it may be a technology problem.

“… One of the problems that may be out there starting to surface is some of the monitors in the replay booths are nowhere near as sophisticated as those who have high-definition at home. (The replay official) is probably looking at a monitor that’s 5 or 6 years old and doesn’t have all the technical advantages that we purchase for ourselves.”

Jesus, guys, go down to Costco and blow a few bucks on some decent sets. It’s not like you can’t afford it.

As I mentioned previously, Georgia was able to fatten many of its stats against an overmatched Tennessee Tech squad this past weekend. Despite that, here are a couple of disconcerting numbers for your perusal this morning.

Georgia is currently third in the SEC in red zone offense, as the Dawgs have scored on every opportunity save one (a Blair Walsh missed field goal, believe it or not). But that ranking is a little deceiving when you look at the breakdown.

Georgia’s had only twenty-one chances inside its opponents’ twenty yard line this season. That’s an astonishingly low number – even Vandy’s been in the red zone ten more times (albeit with one more game under its belt).

And, then, there’s turnover margin. When you’re 119th nationally, it stands to reason that you’re most likely last in the SEC as well. But it’s striking how much worse Georgia is than any other conference member. At minus 16, there’s no other team within shouting distance – only four SEC teams have TO margins in the red and the next worst team, Ole Miss, is at minus seven. Even more astounding is the takeaway number. Georgia has six takeaways in nine games. The next lowest number in that category belongs to South Carolina, which has thirteen. There are four SEC teams which have more than tripled Georgia’s total.

Weird factoid of the day: Ohio State hasn’t played in the Rose Bowl in twelve years.

Richt’s praise for Fred Munzenmaier at yesterday’s teleconference reminded me that I left out one other observation about Saturday’s game – what has happened to Shaun Chapas this year?

The reviews on Charlie Weis’ career are starting to roll in and they’re not exactly boffo. Although I have to disagree with the premise of the second article I linked there. With an $18 million contract buyout (negotiated in the wake of a loss to Southern Cal), the biggest beneficiary of the Weis era has clearly been Charlie Weis.

Stability at the very top, but a lot of underbrush clearing for the rest of the ballot…

TOP FIVE

Alabama

Cincinnati

Florida

Texas

TCU

BEST OF THE REST

Boise State

Georgia Tech

Iowa

Miami

Ohio State

Oregon

Pittsburgh

COMMENTS

I couldn’t agree more with Matt Hinton about the pollsters’ ridiculous decision to rank Southern Cal ahead of Oregon. There is absolutely zero justification for it.

Matt’s also got one other excellent point worth mentioning here: “The SEC has three teams (tying it with the Mountain West and ACC), but all three are in the top eight, even though Alabama and Florida’s only victories over another top-20 team are over LSU, and LSU has no wins over another team in the top 25.” I just don’t see the Tigers as one of the nation’s twelve best right now with that offense.

The top four ranked teams nationally in total defense are Texas, Florida, TCU and Alabama. Coincidence? I think not.

Cincinnati isn’t as highly ranked in defense as those four, but the Bearcats are ranked third in the nation in total offense. (TCU, by the way, is eighth.)

As indicated, my top five was a pretty easy call. I looked at Southern Cal, Penn State, LSU, Utah and Virginia Tech (don’t laugh – the Hokies’ schedule has been tough), but went with Miami and Pittsburgh in my last two slots. Total time spent assembling ballot: approximately 30 minutes.